Though sympathy can’t alter facts, it can help to make them more bearable. — Bram Stoker

Jonathan Harker's Journal, 4 May. From Bürger's "Lenore"

“He is young and strong; there are kisses for us all.”

“Friend John, forgive me if I pain. I showed not my feeling to others when it would wound, but only to you, my old friend, whom I can trust. If you could have looked into my very heart then when I want to laugh; if you could have done so when the laugh arrived; if you could do so now, when King Laugh have pack up his crown, and all that is to him — for he go far, far away from me, and for a long, long time — maybe you would perhaps pity me the most of all.”

I was touched by the tenderness of his tone, and asked why.

“Because I know!”